Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Coma Berenices (Com)  ·  Contains:  M 100  ·  NGC 4321  ·  NGC 4322  ·  NGC 4323  ·  NGC 4328
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M100, Gary Imm
M100, Gary Imm

M100

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M100, Gary Imm
M100, Gary Imm

M100

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Description

This Messier Object, also known as NGC 4321, is a grand design spiral galaxy located 50 million light years away in the constellation of Coma Berenices at a declination of +16 degrees.  It is a magnitude 9.4 galaxy which spans 8 arc-minutes in our apparent view.  This corresponds to a Milky Way size diameter of 120,000 light years.  It is the 47th brightest galaxy in the sky.  

Although it appears to be face-on to us and is often called that, the galaxy disk inclination angle is about 30 degrees from face-on.

This is a beautiful galaxy with distinct spiral arms, blue star clouds, pink HII regions, and dark dust lanes. The spiral arms extend out 360 degrees from the core.  The highlight of this galaxy for me is the bright colorful star forming nuclear ring immediately surrounding the core.

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